


Relapse

by tender_sushijima



Series: Boys Be Ambitious [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angst, F/M, I wouldn't claim that it's kinda Boku no Hero Academia but it is kind of Boku no Hero Academia ish, Past Relationship(s), Synesthesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 18:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11110791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tender_sushijima/pseuds/tender_sushijima
Summary: People all over the globe have potentials of becoming a villain and getting a knife driven right into their hearts, but it takes more than potential to have not a knife in your heart yet still feel the same piercing sensation whilst without being a villain.Horiuchi Kasumi believes that colors speak a better truth than words ever can, for those are the only things that she can see in a person. Kageyama Tobio, while having constantly covered himself in all-black attires since forever, has always looked like the rainbow for her.





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**Author's Note:**

> Like the previous work, I had a dream that's similar to this, and I shit you not I still feel the aftermath of the feelings accompanying it.
> 
> Enjoy the angst.

* * *

 

_“I still love you, you know.”_

When Koe said she wanted to die, she didn’t mean something as general as killed in action. Koe knew that life was becoming too mundane for her liking, too simple and forfeiting her from learning new things. She’d been in the best behavior since forever, and it’s only recently dawned on her that maybe being what everyone expects is tiring. That being the model figure of a great student is a pain to do. That she shouldn’t forbid herself from stepping out of the lines just because others worry that the students that look up to her will follow her footsteps and raise an army of rebels.

That’s not her problem to look after; that’s their problem and inadequacy in educating their students. She’s just there to do her job, which is protecting the school community she’d called a second home for twelve years.

Koe is not her real name. It’s an alias that she’d come to adopt as a member of the worldwide superhero organization, Obsidian Parthenon, from when she was just a first year in junior high. She’d apparently caught the eyes of the scouts and had been promptly invited to join the organization, having claimed that she’s an existence of stellar performance and that they’d be blessed to have her on their side. That was biased of them to think that way, Koe had thought then, because this world is filled with monsters and villains formed from scientific failures and lab rejects. For them to want to rid of those creations they’d contributed into is like destroying their own children. Abortion, if she may add with her junior high vocabulary.

Those were the train of thoughts Koe had before she agreed to become part of Obsidian Parthenon, having two names and a badge of pride to prove her honesty in situations that call for it. Koe had to come home later than usual, immediately heading over to the branch building to train ten times as hard as she had trained for her school’s track team. She’d been taught how to navigate murky floor plans, how to detect which one is an ally and which one is the enemy, how to make use of the limited supply in her vicinity to her advantage, how to never panic when she’s in dire pinch. They taught her many survival tips and Minimalist Collateral Damage course of actions, but there’s only one thing they never thought of teaching her.

They never taught her how to organize her feelings.

Horiuchi Kasumi lived through many years, gone through occasions so severe they can only be described as fire and flood, worked her way through them all with the intelligence of a sagacious scholar and the patience of a perceptive warlord. She knows the best option that’ll go with an event and the identification of optimum circumstances to ensure only the finest results will be made. But she never knew how to deal with the suffusing warmth in her chest when she sees him smile or the way everything in the background blurs when he’s around her.

“Kageyama Tobio, announcing my attendance.”

Horiuchi turns. He’s still sporting the same black unruly bangs, straight and lustrous under the blinding lights of the convention hall. His eyes are pools of calmly undulating seas, darkened and ominous from the setting sun and overlooked by graying clouds. Kageyama’s most prominent attributes is his ability to stay relaxed at all times, standing out like the proverbial sore thumb amongst all the sniffling and panicky students without an inch of tremor in his body. He stands tall and docile, ready to commence whatever orders he’ll receive from the authorities standing before him.

Horiuchi looks away, head hanging, when he looks at her from the corner of his eyes. It’s an honor to be standing to attention before the teachers in front of hundreds of her schoolmates, being the only one who’s lucky enough to be chosen by the Obsidian Parthenon to withhold superhero powers, but the self-regard diminished instantaneously when Kageyama was called as well. Horiuchi isn’t obliged to be the only one taking down the villain, because according to the teachers, this villain is Class 2, roughly the toughest of the villains in the world, and mostly seen. Class 1 is the highest and most complicated of villains to look after, but they’re so rare that they’re almost nonexistent.

Horiuchi knows she could take the credit of being the one to dispose of this Class 2 villain, but her power isn’t permitting her – Koe is only able to discern villains by detecting wavelengths, her brain formulating a set of tunes that’ll lead her to where they are. Right now, she hears the sound ripple through the air and into her eardrums, faintly echoing of a hollow piano piece that seems to get farther away. If they don’t hurry up with this, it’ll get harder for her to find where the villain is.

“W-Whatever you do, don’t l-let him get away,” Azumane stammers to them, pupils shaking as much as his stature. “He m-may have been the head of discip-pline, but he’s a bioterrorist n-now. Get rid of him.”

Horiuchi hates that word. Bioterrorist. It’s like those lab rejects are immediately categorized as the bane of society if they don’t hit the standard expectation of scientists, thrown away like trash and treated like lowly criminals. Horiuchi could’ve been one of them, should her body system reject the serum and turn all her living cells against her control tower that is her brain, and probably looked down upon whenever she shows her face anywhere. It’s a norm for the nation to be notified of anything that occurs in the laboratory, if the procedure to create superheroes had been a success or not, followed by the pictures of the patient involved in the procedure. Horiuchi became somewhat a local celebrity in her school and neighborhood when they announced of her success, dubbing her the first synesthetic superhero. Initially, she’d basked in all the attention, but the hype died down for her and things turned for the worst when she started seeing more red and pink than she’d wanted.

Shirofuku nods, less shaky than Azumane and presumably in a better state, though the absence of her usual lax smile is evident of the worry in her. “Forget about the fact that he once taught you science. He’s not a human anymore. He’s neither a notable man, so you two should be fine. Just remember that he’s now just a villain and nothing but a villain.”

“I thought he was acting a little odd when he first came, but I was right,” Iwaizumi murmurs, arms crossed as he frowns. “For now, try to lure him as far away from the convention hall and the entrance lobby. We can’t endanger these kids and incur more traumas in them.”

“Yes sir,” both Kageyama and Horiuchi respond together. Her lips purse at the stability in his voice, then at the unwavering steadiness of her voice.

“Still, I expected it to be a little later for him to break out of the ordinary,” Iwaizumi continues as he looks around the crouching students. Sighing, he shakes his head. “Anyway, just make sure you be careful when dealing with him. Michimiya-san’s already contacted Obsidian Parthenon for backup so if you think you can’t take him down on your own, hold him back as much as possible until reinforcements come in. Don’t put your lives in danger.”

“Yes sir.”

“Now go. Maximize the volumes in your earpiece if you can’t hear us speaking to you.” Iwaizumi then turns to Horiuchi. “Especially you. You need to listen to us and the song Ushijima is singing to you.”

“It’s not singing,” Horiuchi corrects the male teacher, who only waves a hand nonchalantly.

“Singing or not, it’s still a song.” He then gestures for them to take their leave, and with a running start out of the convention hall, both Horiuchi and Kageyama enter the emergency staircase, where it’s quieter for her to listen to the tune.

She tries not to let his presence disrupt her concentration, but it’s difficult to do so when it’s only the two of them alone in an empty space. For the first time since Horiuchi’s grasped the fundamentals of being a synesthetic superhero, she’s glad that she’s able to hear and see things that others cannot, henceforth allowing her to have a reason to space out when she deems a conversation uncomfortable.

It’s muffled, the piano tunes, but she can vividly hear the lilt of the keys. The rise and fall of the song, hastened as if slowing down will break the villain out of whatever state he’s in, yet gentle like the nonstop flow of a mountain stream. Slowly, she sees pink from the corner of her eyes. Pink with a tinge of gray.

Compassion, love, care. And then depressing, solitude, an intermediate between black and white. The margin of what many perceive as bad and good, barely balanced on a single thread that’s precariously wobbling beneath his feet.

A twinge of sadness washes over Horiuchi. Ushijima-san feels that way? From what she understands with her limited knowledge in chromatic studies, pink and gray are a rare combination on a palette, even rarer when it’s a villain emitting them. Ushijima-san must’ve felt so lost.

“Where is it pointing towards?” Kageyama’s voice startles her out of her trance. He mutters _sorry_ when he sees her jump a little.

“He’s on the top floor,” Horiuchi says to him, and that’s enough of a sign for them to start heading there.

The thing with being a superhero, a trained one at that too, is that nothing will distract them when they’re fixated on a specific goal. It’s a fight or flight response that’s put into their nervous system when they’ve been injected with the serum, an additional involuntary action packed with more adrenaline secretion and heightened senses. Horiuchi could only think of their disciplinary head, deciphering what he might’ve felt during his time in school, implementing strict rules and regulations on students and teachers alike. He’d been helpful and a great sport during his time, a little odd on some parts but wonderful, nonetheless. He may have been unreasonable to some but over time, everyone understood where he was getting at. Only a small select few students liked him, and even then, these students will inevitably find themselves at a crossroad when Ushijima-san starts spouting his spiel of being a good student in a good school.

Horiuchi liked his method of teaching, liked the way he would entertain any questions his students posed and the way he would unrelentlessly keep informing them of what would come out in the finals. Ushijima-san is a great man, but it’s not going to be the same after this. Ushijima-san _was_ a great man.

“Whatever you’re thinking of, stop it,” Kageyama, once again, breaks her out of her thoughts. “We’re in the middle of something; don’t get distracted by other things.”

Horiuchi doesn’t answer, resorting to huff instead. The upside to being paired up with none other than Kageyama is that she doesn’t have to worry about any unseen attacks waiting to befall upon them, because he has the power to see five seconds into a dangerous future and change it. The downside to being paired up with none other than Kageyama is that she’s going to have to pretend like they’ve never been more than colleagues in Obsidian Parthenon, suppressing the ache in her chest where once only warmth and the softest shade of red had been. Now, it’s only icy blue and light gray in her.

_“I’ll be with you forever.”_

She shakes the thought away and focuses on making a run for the top floor, keeping up with Kageyama’s fast pace. Even with a large built like his, Kageyama has always been fast. He’s quite possibly the fastest runner in the entire superhero community, having been an athlete and a cross country runner prior to joining Obsidian Parthenon. Horiuchi grits her teeth and tries not to think of when she first saw him run four hundred meters in their sports event, easily outrunning seven other competitors in the other lanes and securing the first place for himself.

If she’d been a better person then, she’d have waited for him beyond the finishing line with a towel and a bottle of water, exhilarated by his victory and helping him walk by slinging his arm around her as he wobbles towards the bench. Things would’ve been better if Horiuchi had been a better person.

She suddenly sees red.

Maybe things wouldn’t have been better even if Horiuchi had been a better person.

The first sign of the wall on their right side crumbling as they emerge from the emergency staircase was a little resounding crack farther away, but they’re forced to step back before any of the rubble could crush them.  The entire path is blocked, the glass railing bent and giving way to the overflowing rubble of the crumbled wall. Horiuchi and Kageyama pant heavily, watching as the final pieces of the cement chunks bounce down onto the floor. If they’d hastily run through that, they’d have been pushed off the top floor and through the railing, sent down to the lowest ground floor and effectively lengthening their chase on the villain.

Horiuchi is just glad that no one’s hurt in the process, figuring that the shoppers and workers on the top floor have evacuated at the first signs of a villain in the mall.

“We’ll have to take a detour,” Kageyama chokes, gasping for breaths. “There’s no way we can maneuver through this.”

Horiuchi wants to nod and agree but she hears the static of the earpiece in one ear and the piano tune in another. One is loudly inquiring if both the superheroes are alright, the other enticing and ambiguously inviting Horiuchi to follow the tune. And now with Kageyama’s silent declaration to change plans, Horiuchi can’t make up her mind on the best solution.

“We can’t,” she ends up saying, ignoring the ruckus in the earpiece.

Kageyama turns to her, frowning. “Can’t what? The detour?”

She nods. “It’ll take longer to go around this, and even if we do make it on the other side, I’m not sure if I can hear him.” Horiuchi glances behind to see the bridge that connects the blocked off path before them to the other side of the floor. It’s only less than a minute away, but with the flickering wavelengths in her ear, Horiuchi doubts she can track it down on the other side. It’s already weak now that the rubbles have obstructed the paths of the waves, and she’s not sure if a distance further from where they are will be of advantage to find the villain. But if they don’t do that, what can they do?

“How about we go down a floor and come out from the same place, and once we’ve cleared out a safe passage, we come back up from there?”

Horiuchi thinks about it. That would be the best choice, given how every floor has the same framework, but she just hopes that the rubbles haven’t affected the path below them. “Let’s try.”

They hurry down the emergency staircase again and are thankful to see the clear way through, and with Horiuchi’s expertise in floor plans, they are able to find their way back up to the top floor. Along the way, they come across other evacuating shoppers, and they struggle to wade against the man-made current. Eventually, they make it through and find themselves approaching the end of the mall, where the movie theatre and branded shops are, cold and empty and void of people. This time, the tune is closer and stronger in frequency, accompanied by more pink and gray. However, it’s grayer now that they’ve come to a complete stop at the roundabout, where the ceiling is a glass dome and all of the evening light has gathered to illuminate the darkened mall. Only small flecks of pink can be seen and Horiuchi has to squint to notice them

“Is he here?” Kageyama turns to her, face glistening with sweat under the light of the setting sun. “This is the summit of the top floor.”

Horiuchi stares. It’s a little hard to think of other things when she’d been trained to focus on the task at hand, but it’s also hard to think of the task at hand when standing before her is the very person she truly adores and desires. He still looks captivating as always, even with all the display of exhaustion and inconvenience etched on his face. He hasn’t gotten a single dot of acne or any skin irritation that comes with puberty, staying smooth and white like an ageless china trinket, and has only ever improved in appearance. With his official superhero enlistment in Obsidian Parthenon, he’s gotten more muscular and taut from training, faster and more agile, increasingly charming over the years. Horiuchi had been late to realize that she’d gotten a fine man for herself, but she hadn’t been a better person then. It’s the only sensible reason as to how things have come to this between them, yet Horiuchi can’t help but think that there could’ve been other reasons behind it, and she’s not the only one to be blamed.

“Hey, Kasumi,” he calls, and then realizes from the way she flinches that he’d called her with familiarity again. “Where is the guy? He should be close by now, right?”

Horiuchi nods, stinging from how used Kageyama is to calling her with her given name. “He’s somewhere here, but I can’t pinpoint where,” she says, straightening her posture. “The tune is loudest here, the colors saturated. He’s definitely in here.”

If Kageyama doesn’t understand what she’s saying, he doesn’t mention it. He looks around the circular ground, the mosaic floor beneath his sports shoes glittering from the refraction of light. Some of the light is on his uniform, some of it going up to his neck and under his jaw, decorating him in an array of colors in the spectrum.

Horiuchi supposes she sees more gray than pink with the close proximity between them and Ushijima-san, but there’s no mistaking in the colors she sees surrounding Kageyama. All the colors she could possibly think of are everywhere around him – pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, white – shrouding him like a promise of hope.

Horiuchi could stay there and stare at him forever but another crack and thundering demands her attention. They whip around and see the tall figure of the head of discipline and science teacher of their school, his back towards them as he looks up at the glass dome.

Kageyama immediately goes into battle stance and Horiuchi does the same, hesitantly. She’s never the type to expect a lot, but she’d never expected to have to fight a person she debatably looks up to. It’s just a glimpse, merely noticeable in all the refracted colors caused by the mosaic pattern, but she sees a hint of pink come out of the gray mist.

Horiuchi swallows a breath.

“Ushijima-san, I suggest you lay down your armor and surrender yourself to us,” Kageyama calmly tells the teacher – villain – calmly and carefully. “Neither of us wants to fight you and neither are we thinking of making you obey us by force. We just want a truce for the safety of the others in this place.”

Ushijima-san doesn’t answer. He stares at the glass dome for a minute or so, before stepping around to face them. Horiuchi steels her resolve to face him. That is her teacher and that is also someone similar to her and Kageyama; the only difference between them being that he’s wrecked his chances of being a superhero and has become an emotionally deformed person instead. A failure. A lab reject. An entity that needs to be put down for the safety of many others in progress of becoming an improved version of him.

Horiuchi sees tender pink and brooding black, the pastel of one fusing with the dullness of another to create something unsolicited. The color becomes something indescribable, nothing Horiuchi’s ever seen during her training in Obsidian Parthenon.

“Kageyama.”

He turns to her, brows knitted close still.

“Do you see anything?”

He turns back to look at Ushijima-san. “No, nothing of the sort. He’s just standing there, isn’t he? Anything on your part?”

Horiuchi contemplates about telling him the color she’s seeing, but if it’s something she can’t understand herself, how is Kageyama going to understand? He makes decisions based on the future and in light of his past decisions, not based on some flimsy colors and tune. Kageyama won’t know what it’s like to see colors and hear tunes from people around him, a myriad of abstract accounts that’s impossible to divide unless the people are put into separate rooms.

_“I only like you as a friend. Sorry.”_

And suddenly, Horiuchi understands that even if she’d been a better person then, she’d still be undeserving of Kageyama’s affections. Both of them lack the very thing that’ll make up for what they should have for one another, right from the very beginning when Kageyama had asked her out to the very end of their proper contact when Horiuchi had sent him a single text to forget anything’s ever happened between them. They were both so suitable for each other, yet things didn’t work out for them because of the extremities in their dynamics. Kageyama with his constant one-sided yearning for Horiuchi; Horiuchi with her constant refusal to put down her walls and let Kageyama in. Which is why when she’s begun to finally put down her walls and yearn for him, Kageyama has turned away from her and refused to fall back into the push-and-pull current he’d gotten so used to.

Horiuchi could’ve been a better person, but this was the end that not even Kageyama could change if he saw five seconds into it.

“No,” she answers, in the end, voice quaking. Mostly from the intensity of the piano tune Ushijima-san is giving off, topped off with the conclusion she’d come to with her sour ending with Kageyama.

“Dammnit,” he hisses under his breath, unnoticing how tense Horiuchi has become next to him. “I’m not in my best condition today and you’re not trained for combat; we can’t stall him until reinforcements come.”

Horiuchi agrees silently. As far as she’s gotten in Obsidian Parthenon, she’s only been taught how to survive and maximize the potential of her powers, not fight a villain. Kageyama’s superhero power extends to that point along with the two vital lessons Horiuchi had learned, so he’s obviously more prepared for this situation. Should Ushijima-san attack, Kageyama would be burdened with having to stall him and also protect Horiuchi. That is something she would never want to live with. If there’s anything only Horiuchi can do, it’s the fact that she can talk to a villain and touch the deepest parts of their heart, hopefully changing it for the better.

“Ushijima-san,” she calls for him, taking calming breaths when the teacher’s eyes shift towards her. “Everyone is shocked to learn that you’re a villain, and because of that, we’re all in a mental turmoil. None of us know what to think of you, knowing you’re both our teacher and a villain, but there’s one thing I’m sure they all believe in.”

Kageyama glances at her and Ushijima-san alternatively, quietly anticipating the villain’s reaction.

“They trust you as their teacher,” Horiuchi goes on, aware that Kageyama is snaking an arm behind him to reach for something. She doesn’t dare to look his way for fear that Ushijima-san will view it as a scheme, and picks up from where she stops. “You may have been out of line sometimes but we know you want the best for us, always putting us first like that by forcing us to follow as you say. You want us to achieve great heights, that’s why you’re doing all that.”

“Horiuchi Kasumi, just what are you saying to him?” Iwaizumi’s voice crackles in her ear, the only thing that’s loud among her synesthesia.

Horiuchi ignores the teacher’s portentous tone that hides a tendency to punish his students. Ushijima-san may not have won the hearts of the teachers but that doesn’t matter because she’s not viewing him as a teacher anymore; he’s now just a regular villain and she the superhero sent to put him back in his place. “Ushijima-san, I can hear your heart speaking to me. It’s telling me that you’re lonely and you’re in excruciating pain, but you still love what you’re doing. Is that not what you truly think, Ushijima-san?”

When Ushijima-san moves his head to the side, Horiuchi heaves a sigh of relief. He’s responding to her, probably mulling over her words, and Kageyama has flipped open his pocketknife on his back. Horiuchi’s eyes widen in shock, but it soon reverts to mutual acceptance.

She’s learned of the cold, hard truth behind her ending with Kageyama and nothing seems to be able to come to be as terrible as it is, but she’s come to realize that the only way a villain can be put down, is to puncture their heart and stop all blood flow immediately, is just as terrible. More so now that said villain is her teacher – _their_ teacher. Horiuchi doesn’t know for sure how Kageyama feels about Ushijima-san, but it can’t be anything within the barriers of compliments and sympathy given that Ushijima-san has made sure to indicate how much he hates Kageyama’s guts to the entire twelfth grade.

Kageyama has no shortage of people that dislike him, which is a surprise because he’s actually a kindhearted person who just happens to be scarce in social kindred.

“I… I’m not likable, Horiuchi Kasumi,” Ushijima-san speaks up, in his monotone and deep voice. “People have looked at me like I’m not worthy of their gazes. It is only when I’ve achieved something that they started to look at me without a hint of malice. They still don’t trust that I can curb my unearthly wrath and not harm others. I’ve been convincing myself constantly that I will do fine, yet the thought of becoming a villain still looms in the back of my head. And now that it has come to this, there’s no going back anymore.”

Horiuchi shakes her head vigorously, unknowingly taking a step forward. Kageyama reacts right after, eyes finding Ushijima-san and expecting him to retaliate. Nothing happens, no vision appears.

“That’s not true! People do like you! It may not be many, but there are still people that want you around, Ushijima-san. I’m one of them.”

“ _Horiuchi Kasumi_ , I want to pretend that I heard you wrong but you’re treating a bioterrorist like your family.”

Horiuchi rips off the earpiece and throws it aside. She’ll deal with the other teachers and their lecturing later. “Ushijima-san, there is a way to go back. We all get lost in life a lot but we’ll always find a way back to where we came from. It took me a while but I found my way back too.”

“You’re different than me. You’re a superhero while I’m a failure from the lab. How can you put your situation and insert it into mine?”

“We were all the same in the beginning. The same hollow ball of cells made from two sets of chromosomes, just like you taught us. It’s only when we had to be injected by the serum that we become different.”

Ushijima-san is wavering. He’s much slower now and not as determined to be a villain. Horiuchi sees the yellow oozing through the darkness. It’s working, even if it’s taking up too much of her capability to do it. Anything but a knife to his heart.

“Ushijima-san, I promise you that there will be some that believe in you still,” Horiuchi continues, taking one step at a time to inch closer to him. She’s more confident in her words now, and with Kageyama behind her, it’s not hard to see why she’s optimistic about breaking a record of putting down a villain without any blood involved. “I will still believe in you. So please, come back to us. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you or to me.”

Ushijima-san turns to look at her, brows furrowing. His clenched fists are starting to loosen and the dark clouds of color around him are dissipating. “Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

And in that moment itself, Horiuchi believes she’s earned herself a title like no other. She’ll be the first superhero to put down a villain successfully with just soothing words of solace. Along with her title of being the first synesthetic superhero, Horiuchi would be even more of a celebrity. She’d be as good as a deity, a legend, someone a mass of people would go to in search of tranquility and a peace of mind. Horiuchi would be able to come to a conclusion with Kageyama and they’ll both be happy with their lives after graduating high school.

Horiuchi thought it would be like that, but she doesn’t have Kageyama’s five second vision which is more reliable than her meager split second daydreams.

The first thing she sees is the increased pressure in the air around them, and then she sees the cumulating dark clouds coming in on them from the entire roundabout. The yellow she thought she’d seen is gone, replaced with little lightning and thunderbolts shining in the clouds. There’s not a single color other than black, black, and black. All around them is black and a thick fog of it has risen up to the glass dome, shrouding the entire place in darkness. No one light beam is able to penetrate it and they’re immediately blinded. Ushijima-san has disappeared among it and Horiuchi is left to think where she’d gone wrong.

“Kasumi!” Kageyama waves his arms around wildly next to her, coughing. “Kasumi! We have to go! There’s nothing we can do here!”

But she’s not listening. “Where did I go wrong…?”

Kageyama coughs, a hand over his mouth and nose as he shakes Horiuchi. “Kasumi! _Hey!_ We have to _go!_ ” He’s frozen in place when he sees a trail of tear run down her cheek. “Why’re you crying?! He’s a villain! You can’t expect him to change!”

“But—”

“No but’s, we’re going now!”

Kageyama’s five second vision plus his speedy reactions should be able to save them from the tragedy awaiting them, but Kageyama, just like Horiuchi, hasn’t been a better person. In fact, he’s become worst, the way he’s shielded himself from Horiuchi by giving her the cold-shoulder and not looking her way. If Horiuchi being a better person then could’ve sufficed to save their dying relationship, Kageyama being a better person now would also suffice to save their dying relationship.

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about that, and nothing can be done about the five second vision Kageyama sees.

There’s a roar and then the floor beneath them is crumbling. Kageyama instinctively pushes her to the side and he jumps back when the floor between them opens up to a hole, but what he doesn’t expect is for the hole to stretch all the way to where Horiuchi now lies, and he’s left powerless to do anything when the floor caves in below her and she’s falling into it. Kageyama is only left to watch, breathing unstable and voice paralyzed in his trachea, as something in him plummets. There’s a heavy weight resting in his body as the black clouds rush into the hole on the floor, and within seconds, there’s light streaming down onto the space, where only Kageyama is present. The loud noises have died down and the floor ceases to break apart, some wires poking out of the gaping hole before him.

“Kageyama-kun? What happened?” the voice in his earpiece says.

“I—” He looks around. Ushijima-san is nowhere to be seen, and so is Horiuchi. Kageyama replays the five second vision he’d seen, certain that the hole wouldn’t extend to where Horiuchi is, but he’d been deceived by it. He’s only able to see five seconds into the future, not the five seconds beyond that. His vision had only saved him, not Horiuchi.

“Kageyama-kun? Answer me. The reinforcements are here so give me your position.”

“I—” Kageyama chokes. He’s too immobilized, overwhelmed by the shock of seeing Horiuchi fall into the abyss and possibly crushed by the rubble and the wires poking out of them, to speak. His breaths come out ragged and wheezy, and he curls into his knees as his fingers scrape through his scalp.

Excruciating pain. He should’ve been a better person. The pain pierces right into his chest where once only warmth and the rapid beating of his heart used to be.

Kageyama shouts.

Agony. The absence of white noise in a mall has allowed his voice to be louder than usual, bouncing off walls and travelling great distances through the rest of the building. He doesn’t even care if Ushijima-san hears him, if he’s shouting right into the mic of the earpiece. Kageyama can’t feel himself.

He should’ve been a better person.

_“I hope you’re happy without me.”_

 

 


End file.
